When I was in university, I would have a mailbox that I would have to go and check for my bills (in the days before e-delivery) and other mail that I needed. 90% of what ended up in my mailbox was all manner of junk mail. There would be flyers for restaurants, furniture stores and other such things that I didn’t want or need. While my bills and important mail have all made their way to the wreck of e-mail, the junk mail that I am not that interested in has also found its way there as well.
1) Decide if you REALLY need these e-mails – I know what it’s like, you’re on a website, and it’s all hype all the time telling you how awesome it would be to receive their updates. The problem is that a couple of months later when you’ve bought something from them and they are telling you about the newest thing that you can’t quite afford, but they still bombard you with email. It’s an aggravating situation. I have on many different occasions found that I have signed up for things that I thought I needed and then realised quickly that I didn’t. It’s important to make sure that with all the emails that you get throughout your day to day life, the ones that you do get are the ones you actually want.
2) If there is a bunch, take some time to go through them – I don’t know about you, but I do sign up for a lot of things. Some things that I have signed up for previously are things that I don’t want anymore. The problem is that trying to go through all of them at once can be a bit mind-numbing. It’s important to think about the e-mails that you’re getting. If you don’t take your time and try to go through them all at once, you will get fatigued and not want to go through them at all. Which, if you think about it, doesn’t really help solve the problem.
3) Hit the unsubscribe button – I’ll be honest, for a while what I would do with e-mails I didn’t want is just hitting the delete button. The only problem is that merely deleting the e-mails in your inbox will not stop the next ones from coming in. The only way to stop them permanently is to go through and find the unsubscribe button. Most e-mail subscription services don’t stop their e-mails until the subscriber indicates that that is what they want. That’s how it works.
4) Make sure you completely unsubscribe – Depending on how sophisticated the subscription service is, by clicking on “subscribe” button you may have signed up for one series of e-mails or several kinds of e-mails from the same source. Some services will have things like “Promotions” “One time only deals” and other kinds of things. When you hit the unsubscribe button, you will be directed to a webpage. This will send this to one of two different types of pages. If they ask you to either enter in your e-mail address to “Confirm” the unsubscription, or there will be a selection of different types of e-mails that you can unsubscribe from. If you want to keep only a few them, then you will be able to choose what e-mails you want. If you want to get rid of all of them, then there will be an “unsubscribe from all” option which will get rid of them entirely.
5) Keep the good stuff – It’s important to remember that some of the e-mail that you get from various providers is what you actually want. Something I keep as regular mail is news notifications from a web store that I like. I keep getting these e-mails cause I shop there every once and a while. If there is some service which continues to provide you with e-mails you want to receive, then it’s important you keep them coming. Yes, you wouldn’t want to miss any deals (ahem…or blog articles) that could come your way.
E-mail is an essential tool for communication. It’s also a great way to hear about the new things that are happening. The only problem is that with so many e-mails it can be challenging to get through to what’s important. It’s our job to make sure that you don’t get distracted by all the noise that comes through your inbox. To do that you need to be able to manage the noise in your e-mail is to make sure that you only keep the stuff you really need.
Do you have too much email in your inbox?
Let me know in the comments section below. If you like this blog post and want to see more, you can follow me on Social Media (LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook @jasonlovefiles) or Subscribe to my blog to get new content delivered directly to your mailbox.